Congress Debates Tech Visas

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Congress Debates Tech Visas

If there's one thing David Smith doesn't like, it's new foreign workers.

The top lobbyist for the AFL-CIO told Congress on Thursday there's no need to let additional workers into the country – no matter what Silicon Valley firms say about a worker shortage.

"It is premature to even consider another increase in the number of H-1B visas," Smith told a House Immigration subcommittee.

It's a position unions have fairly consistently taken for years. But as the year 2000 elections near and both major parties try to woo tech firms, union opposition to an increase in skilled workers is creating a political headache for the Democrats who rely on organized labor for support.

One Democrat siding with the tech industry is Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-California), who introduced a bill this week creating a new type of work visa for high-skilled foreign students.

Some Republicans, such as Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas), have sponsored similar legislation that would raise current visa limits from 115,000 to 200,000.

"I personally don't think you can have too many geniuses in America," Lofgren said in an interview. "We need to focus on excellence instead of arguing about shortage."

Lofgren's bill – called the BRAIN Act, an acronym for Bringing Resources from Academia for the Industry of our Nation – is designed to help skilled foreign students in American universities stay in the country. It creates a class-T "tech" visa that lets any international student with a science or engineering degree work for five years if he has a job offer of at least US$60,000.

Congress created H-1B visas in the 1950s to give US industry access to highly skilled workers. Since its inception, the plan has drawn fire from groups that say firms can import cheap foreign labor instead of retraining American labor.

Which means the future of Lofgren's bill is uncertain. Its opponents include anti-immigration Republicans such as Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who chairs the immigration subcommittee.